The following piece of code will allow you to create a new page template that will be activated when a user visits http://example.com/custom-post-type/. It may be useful in creating an index page that lists all posts of a content type. The new page that it will recognize is dynamically created.
The following should illustrate (please change the bold text to reflect the post_name of your post type):
/wp-content/themes/my-active-theme/my-content-type-multiple.php
This code can be placed in your active theme’s functions.php file or added to a plugin.
<?php
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'mfields_redirect_custom_content_multiple' );
function mfields_redirect_custom_content_multiple() {
global $mfields_template;
if( $mfields_template ) {
include_once( $mfields_template );
exit();
}
return false;
}
add_filter( 'status_header', 'mfields_template_404' );
function mfields_template_404( $c ) {
global $mfields_template;
$mfields_template = mfields_locate_custom_template();
if( $mfields_template ) {
$header = '200';
$text = get_status_header_desc( $header );
$protocol = $_SERVER["SERVER_PROTOCOL"];
if ( 'HTTP/1.1' != $protocol && 'HTTP/1.0' != $protocol )
$protocol = 'HTTP/1.0';
return "$protocol $header $text";
}
else
return $c;
}
function mfields_locate_custom_template() {
global $wp_post_types, $wp;
if( is_404() ) {
if( array_key_exists( $wp->request, $wp_post_types ) ) {
$file = STYLESHEETPATH . '/' . $wp->request . '-multiple.php';
$file = ( file_exists( $file ) ) ? $file : get_index_template();
return $file;
}
}
return false;
}
?>
Thanks for posting this Mike. Haven’t tested extensively, but it appears to work awesome so far. One minor thing (probably left in from testing) is that print $mfields_template; on line 5 should be removed.
Awesome! Glad it worked for you. Yes, line 5 was left in from testing – I sent it packing :)
Thanks so much, Michael, but it seams that whatever I do, the custom post type always reverts to page.php and not to my /my-content-type-multiple.php page template.
Must be doing something wrong for sure :)
Hmmm. First thought is, did you rename the template file to reflect the post_name of your custom content type? A few examples might be:
banana-multiple.php
big-scary-monster.php
monster-trucks.php
The other thing is that I did not have the proper path specified and should be:
/wp-content/themes/my-active-theme/my-content-type-multiple.php
Let me know if this helps out. BTW the code was tested on 3.0 Beta 2 and may not work in previous versions.
Hum I see, must be that I was running a previous version of 3.0, need to try it with the latest beta.
One thing I’ve notice is that, if I choose a specific page template in the admin attributes to list my custom post type, all works fine.
Vitor, Yes, I agree: setting up a page that has the slug of the custom content type and assigning it a page template capable of displaying the information properly works really well. While this practice is great for a WordPress developer’s site – it may not be the best solution for client work. Littering the pages Administration Panel with “placeholder” pages can be rather confusing to clients – especially those who are a bit timid with technology in the first place. By removing these placeholder pages, you are also stopping unnecessary confusion before it starts. Just another perspective :)
Yes, completely agree with you on this one.
Of course if one wants to hide away some pages from the admin panel, we can always use Justin Tadlock’s Members: WordPress Plugin assign a new Role and hide those pages, but your way is much cleaner.
Thanks so much, Michael, but it seams that whatever I do, the custom post type always reverts to page.php and not to my /my-content-type-multiple.php page template.
Must be doing something wrong for sure :)
Amy,
What is the exact name of your custom template file? It should not be “my-content-type-multiple.php”. If you have the custom content type “Bunnies” then your file should be named “bunnies-multiple.php”.
Thanks. That’s exactly what I was looking for. Using it to generate a stylesheet from theme settings. I’ll get around to posting a blog with the details soon. Thanks again.
Awesome! Glad that the code was helpful. I was recently introduced to the process of hooking into template loader to load a custom stylesheet. Feel free to post a link to the code you used once it is finished.
I want to thank you very much for this post and code! It was very useful in a project I’m currently working on.
Greets, Sander
Sander,
Thanks for writing! I’m glad you found the code useful.
Michael, I figured out how to create custom post types and convert old posts to the new types using various plug-ins (Custom Post Type UI and Convert Post Types). what i haven’t figured out yet is how to display the new types in a widget… seems that here you are explaining how to do it in a page. would this apply to showing in a widget also?
Thanks,
Eric
Quick gotcha that got me for a while.
In the
my-custom-type-multiple.phpfile, you need to make sure you define the loop to pull the correct post type. eg.$loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'my_custom_type', 'posts_per_page' => 10));and make sure that you use the loops
have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>Otherwise, it will try to do some funky thing using a normal post loop, which isn’t what you want. I’m not sure if there’s a better way, but this fix worked for me.
Whoops..Stripped out my code
have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>This is incredibly helpful.
One thing I am having trouble figuring out is the Title Tag for the archive pages of a custom post type. It is showing me the 404 error page title tag, but it is pulling my customposttypename-multiple.php file correctly. How do you change the title tags for the custom post types so it doesn’t display the 404 page title? Is a conditional statement needed in the header.php page, would this be handled in the functions you wrote, or would this be handled in the customposttypename-multiple.php file?
Thanks! It ll depends on how your theme is coded. A conditional statement in header.php might be the way to go, but if you are using a framework, you might need to add a filter in functions.php
I am not using a framework, but have been writing my own theme that started out as the TwentyTen theme. I will play around with header conditions. Thanks!